Māori Moving Image: An Open Archive explores the history of Māori artists who have used animation, film and video as a medium from the 1970s to today. Spanning forty years, from Robert Jahnke’s 1980 animation Te Utu: The Battle of the Gods to Janet Lilo’s 2019 ⌘ SHIFT #, the exhibition features many artists and significant works at different times over the show. This rotation of works acknowledges the exhibition as a living archive and an opportunity to collect stories, learn new relationships and find connections between artists.

Over the duration of Māori Moving Image: An Open Archive, we are hosting a series of talks, screenings and workshops with visiting artists and invited guests to capture a wide range of perspectives. These discussions will ask what influences were important for these artists? How does their work relate to music videos, cinema, or social media? What is distinctive and shared by these works and the artists who created them? This exhibition is an opportunity to ask these questions, and see what responses may unfold.

Matariki is the new year according to the Maori Maramataka (calendar). It is celebrated when the Pleiades constellation rises May-June. It is a time for whānau to reflect on the year passed and look forward to future opportunities. In this body of work a recourse to native flora invokes an analogy of the healing properties of kawakawa to the effect of the revival of language excellence being fostered in Māōri medium schools.

Bursting with bright colours, magical symbols and cross-cultural characters, Maiangi Waitai’s art is all about exploring the mysteries of the universe.

In her newest project made especially for The Dowse, Maiangi re-imagines oral history traditions related to the Matariki constellation. Creating a superhero figure for each star, complete with its own packaging, she shows us a unique way to consider some of the ideas celebrated in Aotearoa New Zealand during the Māori New Year.

A fun, all-encompassing experience for the whole whānau, this vibrant exhibition explores empowerment, nurturing each other, generosity, gratitude, protection of culture and the environment, working together and having a positive attitude!

A showcase exhibition celebrating our artists and the Matariki season. Come and join our story telling sessions and whetu star making workshops during the exhibition, More details will be announced on our facebook.

This event brings special awareness about; how Matariki in conjunction with the Maori lunar calendar optimizes the beginning of the new harvest and ceremonial offering to improve our environment and daily lives.

Our artist alongside Maramataka and star experts will display Maori Arts, music and Knowledge in conjunction with hands-on educational workshops, keynote speaking workshops, as part of the Te Whironui exhibition.

Puanga Kai Rau' an exhibition in collaboration with The Māoriland Hub and Te Ihiroa Designs. The exhibition will feature the work of several multi disciplinary cultural artists from or working within the A.R.T (Te Ātiawa, Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Toa) Confederation of Tribes.

Te Reo Māori, like any language is important to the vitality and meaning of culture. The exhibition Te Reo Pākehā asks how we understand these meanings when looking at Te reo Māori as a non-Māori or as a Māori disconnected from learning the language in the home?

Artists Angela Kilford and Aliyah Winter have designed a series of billboard banner artworks depicting puawānanga in the celestial realm to acknowledge and celebrate the close connection between all things through whakapapa.

Sian Montgomery-Neutze has designed artworks for the seven flag poles at Frank Kitts Park near Whairepo Lagoon. Her work relates to the environment – to life above the water and to the sustaining life forces below the water

Photographer Tessa Williams celebrates the connection between wahine hapū (Pregnant women) and Papatūānuku (our earth mother), embracing the notion that we should nurture our women and land like they nurture us.

The star cluster Matariki (also known as the Pleiades) reappears in the dawn sky above Aotearoa New Zealand in late May or early June. The new moon following the rising of Matariki signals the Māori New Year. Customarily, this was a time to remember the deceased of the past year and to plan for the next year. Today, Matariki has been revived as a celebration of people, culture, language, spirituality, and history. It is a time for whānau (family) and friends to come together to reflect on the past 12 months and look towards the year ahead.